Publisher's Summary

The first novel of J. R. Ward's New York Times best-selling Black Dagger Brotherhood series features a unique take on vampire lore and heavy doses of sensuality.

The vampire Darius fears for the life of his half-breed daughter, who is unaware of her unusual destiny. To oversee her transformation, Darius seeks help from Wrath, a dangerous loner and the world's only purebred vampire.

I know this is a romance novel, but I will tell you her style is alot closer to Urban Fantasy than Romance. She is an awsome writer and this is my favorite series even though I am a guy. Have read all the books and this kicks the series off in a great way. Very different world of Vampires, much different than the Dracula or Anne Rice visions of Vampires. Check this book out, it is dark and at the same time the character development is AWSOME. check it out.

J.R. Ward gets you hooked on this amazing series in this first book of the blackdagger brotherhood. The previous release had an error where a large section was missing, but this has now been fixed. You'll fall in love with these tough, hardcore males who will do anything for the women they love, and the race they're trying to save. The narrator makes this audiobook an enjoyable experience. I loved the book, and now also love the audiobook! Can't wait for the rest of the series to come to audible.

Jim Frangione really made this series for me. I had never read any of J R Wards books but decided to give it a try. I was so thoroughly entertained. I hope Jim will continue to narrate any of the Brother Hood series. The language was hilarious, the build up sensuous and the series intriguing.

J.R. Ward's series is unique and powerful and unlike anything on the market. I have read and then listened to her books. Her plots are gripping and she creates believable characters. However, the books lacks because of the narrator. He sounds like he is reading a text book! I have purchased all there are in the series mainly for the fact that I love Ward's books and I am an impulsive buyer and though I have not regretted my purchase, I have a hard time with some of the scenes. I am almost finished with the Sixth book in the series and the narrator seems to be getting somewhat better although I think at this point I may just be getting used to him. For my future purchases I would never buy a book narrated by Jim Frangione. The only reason I stuck to this one is that I have read them before. Listen to the sample before you buy. If it does not blow your skirt up, buy the book and read it!

It took me a while to get into the first book. It was slow going for a while and the narrator's voice actually bothered me at first, he kind of reminded me of Paul Harvey - just reading information sort-of unattached, not a lot of emotion. But now that I'm almost done with book 4 I think I would be disappointed if there were a different narrator down the line. I've absolutely fallen into the world of the brotherhood. I love each and every brother for different reasons. The sex is HOT! I must however say that in some of the books the sex becomes redundant, but it's still hot and I still love all of the books so far. If you aren't in love with the idea of the brotherhood at the end of this first book then I wouldn't recommend going onto the rest of the series, the second book really helped me to fall in love with it (the series). The rest of the books are a lot like the first, each is just about each of the brother's personal story, their history and relationship to the rest of the brotherhood etc. LOVE THIS SERIES!

My opinion on this book change noticeably as I continued to listen. I think this is the first book that has done this to me. I have just finished, and I can say, I really liked this book. Now having said that...

I thought the beginning was a little too confusing - and sometimes a little slow. There are a lot of characters, and story is written in lots of small sections from different characters points of view...so we meet new characters very suddenly and quickly and the reader must fill in holes quickly to keep up.

If you can manage doing the before mentioned, then you, like me - might be suddenly taken-a-back to the very first sex scene between the two main characters. I found it completely - *COMPLETELY* out of character for the lead female, Beth. The author does a pretty decent job at setting up character personalities - but then he completely goes against everything he just implied about her.

BUT THEN! Just when I am about to roll my eyes at this story, something unexpected happens... it gets - really - good. We get everything - we get a thrill ride, a mystery to solve, danger, death, lust, and self discovery! - all beautifully wrapped into a breathtakingly intimate love story.

It's a pretty good book. It's good enough that I want to immediately start book 2, (which I am downloading now - but as I still have a few MB's to go...) Let's talk about JIM!

Jim narrated this book. I am a narrator snob - I judge! A narrator can ruin a good book, so yes, I judge! My feelings about Jim where directly in line with my feelings about the book. At first I thought Jim was a little too stuffy for this particular cast of characters. His voice was too... commercial? Yes, commercial. I could imagine him as doing voice overs for Gum ommercials. Yet he also got better as the book went on - or my enjoyment of the story made me more tolerable - or at the very least, Jim's stuffiness is not so bad that you can't get over it quickly.

This is the 1st installment in the Brotherhood Series by J R Ward and what a grand opening it is as it invites you to enter a vampire world unlike any other. Ward's storyline is unique and fresh and lures you into a world that you don't want to leave. This is Wrath (King of the Vampires)& Beth's story and the plot developments leave you wanting more, more, more!!! If you have not experienced J R Ward's vampire world I highly recommend each and every installment of this series. I really like the narrator even though there is not much difference between female and male voices...I hope he continues with the series...have purchased each and every title in series, all are amazing, well worth the credit.

I took a big chance with this book and was pretty disappointed from the beginning. The plot is winding and uninteresting and problems are so easily resolved it spins your head almost as much as the passionate and instantaneous love-at-first-sight romances. Im a sucker for mush and sex but for the first time it actually got really old. The writing is awful-I cant stand adult characters using phrases like "thats wack" or "lets hang". And the characters names read like the cast of American Gladiators. Seriously, the writing was so bad I rolled my eyes through the entire thing. But all of this pales in comparison to the narrator. He sounds like Bruce Campbell in the evil dead movies when he says "give me some sugar baby", except hes reading graphic sex scenes to you. Hes awful! And once you notice his annoying intake of breath, its nearly impossible to ignore it. If youre on the fence about whether to buy this then dont.

To say I was excited to listen to this book is an understatement. I am a fan of this genre. Based on the plethora of rave reviews, imagine my surprise when I found myself HATING this book.
The dialogue is juvenile to say the least. Although the BDB are hundreds years old, plenty of time to sound intelligent and cultured, they converse as if they learned how to speak from listening to rap music (dig my brotha?). The interaction between the ultra alphamale characters is so cheesetastically written, I actually laughed aloud. Maybe if this book was marketed as a spoof of the genre I would not have been so disappointed, at least I would have been prepared for the corny writing. The story is spotty and inconsistent. The hero is suppose to be almost totally blind (strange concept), yet he can see to fight. He is so blind he can barely eat and cannot tell the difference between mashed potatoes and rice on his dinner plate, yet when his libido kicks in; he can see juice running down the heroines chin when he feeds her a strawberry. What tripe! The hero is the only purebred vampire, but how did he come about, the history of the race is not fleshed out. The BDB do not kill humans, so why does the Lesser society want to kill them?
I cannot see any redeeming qualities among the brotherhood, one is so twisted, the others suspect him of murdering prostitutes, which seems to be ok with the others, until they think his actions may focus the attentions of the police on the brotherhood. Great hero to root for!
This is billed as a romance, but you get very little of that, no real emotion, just sex. I think the book spends more time on the sadistic psycho head of the Lesser society then the relationship between the hero and heroine. I could go on and on, but I will not. I am clearly in the minority with this review. To each his own!